The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-12

the dead man. They proved the relationship by
describing him infinitely and by documents.
They had not heard of his death until just pre-
vious writing. not having been in the habit
of reading the New York papers. They were
very anxious in their inquiries TO tho manner
of his death, and startled me not little by
stating that just previous to his departure for
New York he had quietly sold his farm for
81, 0o0. The money had disappeared with him.
and they wanted to know where it was.
II tell you that was pretty go. It was the
public administrators business to that
81, 600, and he had only secured forty dollars. L
employed detectives and had them dog this land
lord, whom | suspected at once, night and day
They assumed the gait and manner OF sailors,
and went to the lodging house and stage there.
They were the best mon Pinkerton could fur
nish. They tried to get into the landlords con-
idence, and, as they reported to me, succeeded:
got not the slightest information. They then
looked mp the persons who had been
in the house at the time that the young farmer
had been living there. There were dozen de-
tectives employed at my expense to shadow a
crowd of touehs who, If they had taken the
money, undoubtedly had had time to put il in a
result was discouraging. All the men who could
in any way he implicated hao been approached
in the same manner the landlord. had all
responded in an open and frank manner. had
conversed the subject freely, and had not
told thing which bore upon tho subject OF tine
lost money.
the relatives a statement to the effect that
the 81. 900 mad been placed by tine young man In
a wallet. which he wore on belt around his
body. sat down night to think it all over.
and then / WAS struck with an inspiration L
went right out that night to see the undertaken.
and when saw him felt sure was saved.
was rather excited, but after having pumped
him made it clear to him that could put him
in a box if he did not tell me the
truth. What 1 supposed was So found
one of my most trusty clerks, and late at
night he started from the Jersey City Yerry with
q commission from me. That commission he
showed TO a man in charge of the cemetery,
vhora tha Pann vi ia far w nm led II
got permit from him, and with two laborers
armed with picks and shovels they went to the
stoneless grave and began operations 1t was
almost exciting and interesting as chapter
from Gaboriau. AS he described 1t afterward,
the scene weirdly and intensely thrilling.
st was the blacklist of cloudy nights. 1t had
raned, and the air was damp, A heavy twenty
mile gale groaned and shrieked over the trees.
The expressionless faces of the diggers were
ing lantern. When they reached the bottom of
the grave the spade struck the coffin with q
ringing sound that made my clerk, as he after
ward confessed shudder convulsively. They
pulled up the box. It came up slowly, like q
fend from the lower regions AS though 1t was
purely a business matter. they pried off the lid
finished up the Job. One of the men held M
the lantern. The sockets of the dead mans
eyes stared vacantly. the cheek bones had crept
through the skin, and the lips had fallen at the
corners into CHASTITY and horrible smile. My
clerk said he never knew how he did IT. His
heart stood still and his eyes seemed TO bulge in
horror from his head. Somehow other
be managed to lift up the dead mans blouse, and
there, beneath it. the belt and the wallet
In the wallet was the lost money. There were
81 900 in ban k-notes. Their burial in the close
air of the coffin and next to the deeaying corpse
had changed them into an almost uurecogniza-
BILE ness of sticky paper. It was all could do
the next morning to get tina Treasury officials to
take the money and redeem it In gold.
'fYou the inspired thought I had that
night was this: Suppose they never undressed
the man before his burial and suppose the wal
let lay next to his body, then of course. it is
still there knew that the undertaken would
be apt to be careless in a where he knew,
in this instance, that there would be nobody
to oversee the job, and it would be nothing sur
prising If the burial were hasty sent
that money that day to the relatives in Penn
sylvania. with a note informing them of the
cause Of the delay and of the way in which it
finally discovered I don't believe how
ever to this day that they placed any credence
in my account of the discovery of the money"